"We know that top-division players don't like contact, they don't like if we waste time or if we play dirty.

"So that was the way to do it. Football is like that. Football is for the clever.

"The poor guy (Otero), it did his head in. But what do you want me to do? We know we had to make the game dirty because top-division players don't like it. He must have hated me, but that's football."

Speaking to the BBC South American football expert Tim Vickery, Allende said one of the needles "broke", and that the other was used on Otero "several times" when the referee was "at the other end of the pitch".

Adding to the radio interview, Allende said: "I completely nullified Otero. He must hate me."

The Estudiantes striker has claimed he was poked four times, and that he told the referee, who didn't believe him.

But Allende will be lucky to continue his football career, and certainly with Pacifico.

The club's president Hector Monca has said he will "expel him from the club" and described how the incident has left everyone "devastated".